— In Bill Polian’s long career as an NFL general manager, his team had the number-one pick in the draft just once. That was in 1998, when he was with Indianapolis, and the Colts that year selected a quarterback, Peyton Manning.

That worked out well for Polian and the Colts. But Polian said he doesn’t think the Chiefs should draft a quarterback with this year’s first pick, even though they would like an upgrade over Matt Cassel. Like many assessing this year’s draft, Polian said there’s not a quarterback worthy of being the number-one selection.

“Just because there’s not a quarterback that everybody now doesn’t think is worth the number-one pick doesn’t mean you can’t get a quarterback,” Polian said. “Nobody thought Russell Wilson was worth a third-round pick except a couple of us. He turned out to be a pretty good quarterback.

“You always go for the best player. It’s foolish to go for need and (Chiefs coach Andy Reid) won’t do that.”

While Reid coached in Philadelphia, the Eagles at least a couple of times found quarterbacks after the first round who eventually became starters, including Kevin Kolb and Nick Foles.

“Nobody develops quarterbacks better than Andy Reid,” Polian said. “So rest assured, you’ve got the right guy. Whatever decision he makes will be the right one. He’ll find a quarterback. It doesn’t need to be the first guy in the draft.”
Other than to stay away from quarterbacks, Polian had no advice for the Chiefs with the first pick.

“Ask Andy,” he said. “They know their personnel far better than I do and they know what they need.”

He didn’t throw deep very often. Between the 11-20 and 20+ yard zones, Manuel only threw past 10 yards 26% of the time. This ties Matt Barkley for the lowest in the last two classes.
Most of that was a factor of him not going to the 11-20 zone often. He was actually close to average in how often he threw 20+ yards, but threw in the intermediate zone 10% of the time less than the AvgQB.
EJ threw within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage 52% of the time. Again this ties Matt Barkley for the highest within these zones in the last two classes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we have to check out his accuracy to ensure those aren’t the only locations he can throw.

This is where it gets interesting. Manuel completed 73.33% of his passes in the 11-20 yard range. This would be the second highest in the last two classes behind RGIII. However, as we saw above, he hardly ever threw there. Does this make it a fluke or was Jimbo Fisher’s offense keeping him from reaching his full potential?
However, when he had to throw past 20 yards, his completion percentage fell. This is what makes me think the 11-20 yard completion percentage is a bit of an anomaly. You aren’t able to throw intermediate passes extremely well and then suddenly become below-average at deeper balls. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
His shorter zone accuracy was quite good. He was hitting average to above average in the 1-10 yard routes, which isn’t anything to complain about. His 6-10 yard completion accuracy is the highest in the last two classes, besting Andrew Luck for the highest. If he can capitalize on that in the NFL, I guarantee an OC can find work for him.